Food/Package Compatibility and Migration

Abstract

Physical/chemical compatibility is discussed as the primary factor in minimizing the reaction and interaction of components of the food with components of the packaging material. The key variables which determine the interaction are diffusion, partition, sorption and desorption constants. Examples are given for the migration and permeation of volatile and non-volatile compounds. An example shows the importance of considering the possibility of harmless components of the packaging material reacting to form organoleptic-active substances.

Mass transfer kinetics and diffusion coefficient estimation of bioinsecticide terpene ketones in LDPE films obtained by supercritical CO2‐assisted impregnation

“…These values ranged from 2.35 × 10 −13 to 5.53 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 for thymoquinone, and from 1.24 × 10 −13 to 4.52 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 for pulegone, being D T values between 20% and 100% higher than D P values, depending on the impregnation conditions. In general, these values are comparable in order of magnitude to the diffusion coefficients reported in the literature for other similar terpenes in semi‐crystalline LDPE at the same temperature, such as limonene (2–20 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 , at 22 °C), pinene (9.7 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 , at 22 °C), citral (3.5–5.5 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 , at 23 °C), menthol (1.2 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 , at 23 °C), and 1,8‐cineol (1.0 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 , at 23 °C), among others. As previously mentioned, direct comparison between different sets of data is difficult when the polymer properties vary, and therefore results should not be compared beyond the order of magnitude.…”

“…who have reported D values for eugenol in LDPE films in the range of 2.3–10.3 × 10 −14 m 2 s −1 , determined both by attenuated total reflection‐FTIR spectrometry and High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), at 23 °C. Other authors have informed a somewhat higher value of 2.6 × 10 −13 m 2 s −1 (also in LDPE, at 23 °C), but information about the experimental conditions and procedure is not available in open literature to the best of our knowledge. Caution has to be taken when comparing experimental data obtained using different LDPE samples, as polymer density and morphology differences can introduce important variability in the observed results.…”

Polymer Additive Analytics

“…Off-odour from styrene-butadiene coated paper was attributed to 4-phenyl-cyclohexane, as identified by GC-MS [92]. In another offodour complaint related to methoxy-propanol from printing of a film it was assessed that 5methyl-4-heptene-3-on had been formed [8].…”

Techniques to measure sorption and migration between small molecules and packaging. A critical review

“…Mass transfers between the food and the packaging are governed by kinetic and thermodynamic parameters . The partition coefficient of the migrant between the packaging and the food is the thermodynamic parameter of the mass transfer phenomenon.…”